Let’s Get Political!

This actually came to my attention a couple of weeks ago, but CNN’s website gave me a friendly reminder today that the fine folks at JibJab have done it again! They’ve outdone themselves this time, with an election warm-up video that takes no prisoners!

What I like about this is that it has something with the potential of ticking off anyone’s support: they show Bush, Cheney, McCain, BOTH Clintons, and Obama, and ignore Barr and Nader, potentially ticking off their support as well! Now THAT’s my idea of “Fair and Balanced!”

Seeing this video reminds me of the wealth of political humor out there–for my 18th birthday, all I wanted was to see Mark Russell perform at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta’s beautiful E. Ponce area. Too much fun! I’ll have to upload some of his stuff from YouTube some other time!

Anyway, I thought I would add a couple of Tales (Political) from the Cranial Archives. Enjoy!

Daddy remembers well the Election of 1936, even though he was only 11 at the time. Democrat incumbent Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running against Republican Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. The scene was the Colquitt County Courthouse, and everyone who could turned out to witness the vote count (or to find out how much longer before the bars could re-open). The results were a given, for after all, this was the yellow-dog-Democrat deep south, and FDR’s frequent visits to Warm Springs, northwest of Moultrie, gave him a support boost he really didn’t need to get elected.

With great ceremony, the Supervisor of Elections opened the ballot box. A clerk sat by his side to record the vote. The Supervisor painstakingly held up each ballot individually and called out its endorsement with a booming voice: “Roosevelt!” “Roosevelt!” “Roosevelt!” and so on for quite some time, until, all of a sudden, the word rang out: “Landon!”

The room fell silent. No one had ever voted Republican before–at least, not to anyone’s memory. The clerk looked up at the Supervisor quizzingly. “Whadda we do? How do I mark this?”

The Supervisor looked down at the clerk kindly. Resting the Republican ballot next to the box, he said “I’ll just lay it down here until we’ve counted the rest.” He then picked up the next ballot and continued “Roosevelt!” “Roosevelt!” “Roosevelt!” “Roosevelt!”

After some time, he picked out a ballot from the box and called out “Landon!” Again, the room fell silent. The clerk, clearly consternated, said to the Supervisor, “Whadda we do now?!?”

Without missing a beat, the Supervisor picked up the other Republican ballot, held the two together, and tore them to bits saying, “We disqualify them; the damned fool voted twice!”

Another Tale involves Pierre Howard, who was Lt. Governor of Georgia in the 1990’s. He made an unsuccessful bid for Governor in 1999, losing in the primaries to State Sen. Roy Barnes, who would eventually win the general election. While campaigning in SW Georgia, Howard (who famously told voters that “‘Pierre’ is French for ‘Bubba'”) lost track of his location while going door-to-door asking for support. He knocked on one door, then told the lady who opened it “My name’s Pierre Howard and I’m running for Governor. I sure would appreciate your support on [election day].”

The lady recieved him kindly, but told him that, much as she would like to, she could not give Howard her support.

“May I ask why not?” inquired Howard. After all, he needed to be seen as someone who was willing to listen to the people, and if it was a problem he could fix, he most certainly would.

“You crossed the state line a quarter-mile back. You’re in Florida now.”

The AP had a field day with this one. I know because I read about it in the St. Pete Times–I was living in Florida, too, at the time!